Question 1

What must a valid tax invoice contain in South Africa?

Accepted Answer

For a supply above R5,000 including VAT, the Value-Added Tax Act requires a full tax invoice with: the words Tax Invoice, VAT Invoice or Invoice; the supplier's name, address and VAT registration number; the recipient's name and address and, if the recipient is a vendor, its VAT number; a serial number and the date of issue; a description of the goods or services and the quantity or volume; and the amounts, either value, VAT and total shown separately or a total with a statement that VAT is included at the standard rate. For supplies between R50 and R5,000 an abridged tax invoice may omit the recipient's details and the quantity. The recipient may only claim input tax on a document that meets these requirements, which is why an invoice missing the VAT number comes back from the client's bookkeeper. Omni Field prints all of these on an invoice from a VAT-registered business and checks for the missing ones.

Question 2

Is a job card a tax invoice?

Accepted Answer

No. A job card is a record of the work done, the parts used and the time on site, signed by the client to confirm those facts. A tax invoice is the request for payment issued when the supply is made, and it must carry the words and details the Value-Added Tax Act requires before the client can claim input tax on it. Printing the words Tax Invoice on a job card, or handing a job card to a client as if it were the invoice, causes two problems: the client's bookkeeper rejects it because it lacks the required details, and the vendor may have issued a document that looks like an invoice without recording the supply for VAT. The right sequence is job card signed on site, then a tax invoice issued from it within 21 days. Omni Field turns a completed job card into a tax invoice in one step, and its free job card template says on its face that it is not one.

Question 3

How long do I have to issue a tax invoice?

Accepted Answer

The Act requires a vendor to issue a tax invoice within 21 days of the date of the supply. For a tradesperson that is 21 days from completing the job, or from each progress stage where the contract provides for payment in stages. The recipient also needs the invoice to claim input tax in the period the supply falls in, so late invoicing costs the client too. The practical consequence for a small business is that invoicing at month end from a pile of job cards is often outside the 21 days for the earlier jobs, apart from being the reason cash arrives late. Issuing the invoice from the job on the day the work is signed off, with a payment link attached, meets the rule and is paid sooner. Omni Field creates the invoice from the completed job card on site and sends it to the client by WhatsApp or email with a Paystack link.

Question 4

Must I show VAT separately on an invoice?

Accepted Answer

The Act allows either of two forms. The invoice may show the value of the supply excluding VAT, the VAT charged, and the total, each as a separate figure; or it may show only the total including VAT together with a statement that the amount includes VAT at the standard rate. Either is valid, though most business customers prefer the first because their accounting software captures the VAT figure directly. Where a supply is zero-rated or exempt, that must be indicated. Amounts must be in Rand. Prices quoted to the public are expected to be shown inclusive of VAT under consumer protection rules, which is the reason Omni Field displays its own prices with VAT included and calculates VAT from the gross amount using one rounding rule so that the net and the VAT always add back to the total charged. On invoices to your clients Omni Field prints the three figures separately.

Question 5

How long must I keep invoices and job records?

Accepted Answer

A vendor must keep records, including copies of every tax invoice issued and received, credit and debit notes, and the books that support the VAT returns, for five years from the date of the last entry in them or the date of submission of the return they support. Records may be kept electronically, and SARS may require them to be produced in a form it can read. A job card that supports an invoice, and the photographs and signature that show the work was done, are part of the evidence that the supply happened and are worth keeping for the same period, quite apart from their value if a client later disputes the work. Paper in a box in a store room does not survive five years of damp and moves. Omni Field keeps invoices, credit notes, job cards, photographs and signatures against the client and exports them for the accountant or for an audit.

What SARS requires on a tax invoice, and when a job card is not one

Full and abridged tax invoices

Timing and records

Job cards, quotes and invoices

What Omni Field does about this

Questions

Sources